2002

pages: 644, Adaptive Computation and Machine Learning, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, USA, December 2002, Parts of this book, including an introduction to kernel methods, can be downloaded here. (book)

Abstract

In the 1990s, a new type of learning algorithm was developed, based on results from statistical learning theory: the Support Vector Machine (SVM). This gave rise to a new class of theoretically elegant learning machines that use a central concept of SVMs-kernelsfor a number of learning tasks. Kernel machines provide a modular framework that can be adapted to different tasks and domains by the choice of the kernel function and the base algorithm. They are replacing neural networks in a variety of fields, including engineering, information retrieval, and bioinformatics.
Learning with Kernels provides an introduction to SVMs and related kernel methods. Although the book begins with the basics, it also includes the latest research. It provides all of the concepts necessary to enable a reader equipped with some basic mathematical knowledge to enter the world of machine learning using theoretically well-founded yet easy-to-use kernel algorithms and to understand and apply the powerful algorithms that have been developed over the last few years.

Journal of Vision, 2(7):300, Second Annual Meeting of the Vision Sciences Society (VSS), November 2002 (poster)

Abstract

The problem of surface-slant-from-texture was studied psychophysically by measuring the performances of five human subjects in a slant-discrimination task with a number of different types of textures: uniform lattices, randomly displaced lattices, polka dots, Voronoi tessellations, orthogonal sinusoidal plaid patterns, fractal or 1/f noise, “coherent” noise and a “diffusion-based” texture (leopard skin-like). The results show: (1) Improving performance with larger slants for all textures. (2) A “non-symmetrical” performance around a particular slant characterized by a psychometric function that is steeper in the direction of the more slanted orientation. (3) For sufficiently large slants (66 deg) there are no major differences in performance between any of the different textures. (4) For slants at 26, 37 and 53 degrees, however, there are marked differences between the different textures. (5) The observed differences in performance across textures for slants up to 53 degrees are systematic within subjects, and nearly so across them. This allows a rank-order of textures to be formed according to their “helpfulness” — that is, how easy the discrimination task is when a particular texture is mapped on the surface. Polka dots tended to allow the best slant discrimination performance, noise patterns the worst up to the large slant of 66 degrees at which performance was almost independent of the particular texture chosen. Finally, our large number of 2AFC trials (approximately 2800 trials per texture across subjects) and associated tight confidence intervals may enable us to find out about which statistical properties of the textures could be responsible for surface-slant-from-texture estimation, with the ultimate goal of being able to predict observer performance for any arbitrary texture.

Journal of Vision, 2(10):7, Second Annual Meeting of the Vision Sciences Society (VSS), November 2002 (poster)

Abstract

Much of our information about spatial vision comes from detection experiments involving low-contrast stimuli. Contrast discrimination experiments provide one way to explore the visual system's response to stimuli of higher contrast, the results of which allow different models of contrast processing (e.g. energy versus gain-control models) to be critically assessed (Wichmann & Henning, 1999). Studies of detection and discrimination using pulse train stimuli in noise, on the other hand, make predictions about the number, position and properties of noise sources within the processing stream (Henning, Bird & Wichmann, 2002). Here I report modelling results combining data from both sinusoidal and pulse train experiments in and without noise to arrive at a more tightly constrained model of early spatial vision.

This paper addresses the issue of combining pre-processing methods—dimensionality reduction using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Locally Linear Embedding (LLE)—with Support Vector Machine (SVM) classification for a behaviorally important task in humans: gender classification. A processed version of the MPI head database is used as stimulus set. First, summary statistics of the head database are studied. Subsequently the optimal parameters for LLE and the SVM are sought heuristically. These values are then used to compare the original face database with its processed counterpart and to assess the behavior of a SVM with respect to changes in illumination and perspective of the face images. Overall, PCA was superior in classification performance and allowed linear separability.

The tangential neurons in the fly brain are sensitive to the typical optic flow patterns generated during self-motion. In this study, we examine whether a simplified linear model of these neurons can be used to estimate self-motion from the optic flow. We present a theory for the construction of an optimal linear estimator incorporating prior knowledge about the environment. The optimal estimator is tested on a gantry carrying an omnidirectional vision sensor. The experiments show that the proposed approach leads to accurate and robust estimates of rotation rates, whereas translation estimates turn out to be less reliable.

Journal of Vision, 2(7):229, Second Annual Meeting of the Vision Sciences Society (VSS), November 2002 (poster)

Abstract

Much of our information about spatial vision comes from detection experiments involving low-contrast stimuli. Contrast discrimination experiments provide one way to explore the visual system's response to stimuli of higher contrast. We explored both detection and contrast discrimination performance with sinusoidal and "pulse-train" (or line) gratings. Both types of grating had a fundamental spatial frequency of 2.09-c/deg but the pulse-train, ideally, contains, in addition to its fundamental component, all the harmonics of the fundamental. Although the 2.09-c/deg pulse-train produced on the display was measured and shown to contain at least 8 harmonics at equal contrast, it was no more detectable than its most detectable component; no benefit from having additional information at the harmonics was measurable. The addition of broadband "pink" noise, designed to equalize the detectability of the components of the pulse train, made it about a factor of four more detectable than any of its components. However, in contrast-discrimination experiments, with an in-phase pedestal or masking grating of the same form and phase as the signal and 15% contrast, the noise did not improve the discrimination performance of the pulse train relative to that of its sinusoidal components. In contrast, a 2.09-c/deg "super train," constructed to have 8 equally detectable harmonics, was a factor of five more detectable than any of its components. We discuss the implications of these observations for models of early vision in particular the implications for possible sources of internal noise.

Seemingly effortlessly the human brain reconstructs the three-dimensional environment surrounding us from the light pattern striking the eyes. This seems to be true across almost all viewing and lighting conditions. One important factor for this apparent easiness is the redundancy of information provided by the sensory organs. For example, perspective distortions, shading, motion parallax, or the disparity between the two eyes' images are all, at least partly, redundant signals which provide us with information about the three-dimensional layout of the visual scene. Our brain uses all these different sensory signals and combines the available information into a coherent percept. In displays visualizing data, however, the information is often highly reduced and abstracted, which may lead to an altered perception and therefore a misinterpretation of the visualized data. In this panel we will discuss mechanisms involved in the combination of sensory information and their implications for simulations using computer displays, as well as problems resulting from current display technology such as cathode-ray tubes.

The choice of an SVM kernel corresponds to the choice of a
representation of the data in a feature space and, to
improve performance, it should therefore incorporate prior knowledge such as known transformation invariances. We propose a technique which extends earlier work and aims at incorporating invariances in nonlinear kernels. We show on a
digit recognition task that the proposed approach is
superior to the Virtual Support Vector method, which previously had been the method of choice.

We show via an equivalence of mathematical programs that a support vector (SV) algorithm can be translated into an equivalent boosting-like algorithm and vice versa. We exemplify this translation procedure for a new algorithmone-class leveragingstarting from the one-class support vector machine (1-SVM). This is a first step toward unsupervised learning in a boosting framework. Building on so-called barrier methods known from the theory of constrained optimization, it returns a function, written as a convex combination of base hypotheses, that characterizes whether a given test point is likely to have been generated from the distribution underlying the training data. Simulations on one-class classification problems demonstrate the usefulness of our approach.

We consider the learning problem of finding a dependency between a general class of objects and another, possibly different, general class of objects. The objects can be for example: vectors, images, strings, trees or graphs. Such a task is made possible by employing similarity measures in both input and output spaces using kernel functions, thus embedding the objects into vector spaces. Output kernels also make it possible to encode prior information and/or invariances in the loss function in an elegant way. We experimentally validate our approach on several tasks: mapping strings to strings, pattern recognition, and reconstruction from partial images.

Fourier phase plays an important role in determining global image structure. For example, when the phase spectrum of an image of a flower is swapped with that of a tank, we usually perceive a tank, even though the amplitude spectrum is still that of the flower. Similarly, when the phase spectrum of an image is randomly swapped across frequencies, that is its Fourier energy is randomly distributed over the image, the resulting image becomes impossible to recognise. Our goal was to evaluate the effect of phase manipulations in a quantitative manner. Subjects viewed two images of natural scenes, one of which contained an animal (the target) embedded in the background. The spectra of the images were manipulated by adding random phase noise at each frequency. The phase noise was the independent variable, uniformly distributed between 0° and ±180°. Subjects were remarkably resistant to phase noise. Even with ±120° noise, subjects were still 75% correct. The proportion of correct answers closely followed the correlation between original and noise-distorted images. Thus it appears as if it was not the global phase information per se that determines our percept of natural images, but rather the effect of phase on local image features.

In recent years, an increasing number of research projects investigated whether the central nervous system employs internal models in motor control. While inverse models in the control loop can be identified more readily in both motor behavior and the firing of single neurons, providing direct evidence for the existence of forward models is more complicated. In this paper, we will discuss such an identification of forward models in the context of the visuomotor control of an unstable dynamic system, the balancing of a pole on a finger. Pole balancing imposes stringent constraints on the biological controller, as it needs to cope with the large delays of visual information processing while keeping the pole at an unstable equilibrium. We hypothesize various model-based and non-model-based control schemes of how visuomotor control can be accomplished in this task, including Smith Predictors, predictors with Kalman filters, tapped-delay line control, and delay-uncompensated control. Behavioral experiments with human participants allow exclusion of most of the hypothesized control schemes. In the end, our data support the existence of a forward model in the sensory preprocessing loop of control. As an important part of our research, we will provide a discussion of when and how forward models can be identified and also the possible pitfalls in the search for forward models in control.

The authors used a recognition memory paradigm to assess the influence of color information on visual memory for images of natural scenes. Subjects performed 5-10% better for colored than for black-and-white images independent of exposure duration. Experiment 2 indicated little influence of contrast once the images were suprathreshold, and Experiment 3 revealed that performance worsened when images were presented in color and tested in black and white, or vice versa, leading to the conclusion that the surface property color is part of the memory representation. Experiments 4 and 5 exclude the possibility that the superior recognition memory for colored images results solely from attentional factors or saliency. Finally, the recognition memory advantage disappears for falsely colored images of natural scenes: The improvement in recognition memory depends on the color congruence of presented images with learned knowledge about the color gamut found within natural scenes. The results can be accounted for within a multiple memory systems framework.

Much of our information about early spatial vision comes from detection experiments involving low-contrast stimuli, which are not, perhaps, particularly "natural" stimuli. Contrast discrimination experiments provide one way to explore the visual system's response to stimuli of higher contrast whilst keeping the number of unknown parameters comparatively small. We explored both detection and contrast discrimination performance with sinusoidal and "pulse-train" (or line) gratings. Both types of grating had a fundamental spatial frequency of 2.09-c/deg but the pulse-train, ideally, contains, in addition to its fundamental component, all the harmonics of the fundamental. Although the 2.09-c/deg pulse-train produced on our display was measured using a high-performance digital camera (Photometrics) and shown to contain at least 8 harmonics at equal contrast, it was no more detectable than its most detectable component; no benefit from having additional information at the harmonics was measurable. The addition of broadband 1-D "pink" noise made it about a factor of four more detectable than any of its components. However, in contrast-discrimination experiments, with an in-phase pedestal or masking grating of the same form and phase as the signal and 15% contrast, the noise did not improve the discrimination performance of the pulse train relative to that of its sinusoidal components. We discuss the implications of these observations for models of early vision in particular the implications for possible sources of internal noise.

Practical experience has shown that in order to obtain the best possible performance, prior knowledge about invariances of a classification
problem at hand ought to be incorporated into the training procedure. We describe and review all known methods for doing so in support vector machines,
provide experimental results, and discuss their respective merits. One of the significant new results reported in this work is our recent achievement of the
lowest reported test error on the well-known MNIST digit recognition benchmark task, with SVM training times that are also significantly faster than
previous SVM methods.

The detectability of contrast increments was measured as a function of the contrast of a masking or pedestal grating at a number of different spatial frequencies ranging from 2 to 16 cycles per degree of visual angle. The pedestal grating always had the same orientation, spatial frequency and phase as the signal. The shape of the contrast increment threshold versus pedestal contrast (TvC) functions depend of the performance level used to define the threshold, but when both axes are normalized by the contrast corresponding to 75% correct detection at each frequency, the (TvC) functions at a given performance level are identical. Confidence intervals on the slope of the rising part of the TvC functions are so wide that it is not possible with our data to reject Webers Law.

In this paper we investigate connections between statistical learning
theory and data compression on the basis of support vector machine
(SVM) model selection. Inspired by several generalization bounds we
construct ``compression coefficients'' for SVMs, which measure the
amount by which the training labels can be compressed by some
classification hypothesis. The main idea is to relate the coding
precision of this hypothesis to the width of the margin of the
SVM. The compression coefficients connect well known quantities such
as the radius-margin ratio R^2/rho^2, the eigenvalues of the kernel
matrix and the number of support vectors. To test whether they are
useful in practice we ran model selection experiments on several real
world datasets. As a result we found that compression coefficients can
fairly accurately predict the parameters for which the test error is
minimized.

Proceedings of the 33rd European Conference on Mathematical Psychology, pages: 44, 2002 (poster)

Abstract

The psychometric function relates an observer's performance to an independent variable, usually some physical quantity of a stimulus in a psychophysical task. Here I describe methods to (1) fitting psychometric functions, (2) assessing goodness-of-fit, and (3) providing confidence intervals for the function's parameters and other estimates derived from them. First I describe a constrained maximum-likelihood method for parameter estimation. Using Monte-Carlo simulations I demonstrate that it is important to have a fitting method that takes stimulus-independent errors (or "lapses") into account. Second, a number of goodness-of-fit tests are introduced. Because psychophysical data sets are usually rather small I advocate the use of Monte Carlo resampling techniques that do not rely on asymptotic theory for goodness-of-fit assessment. Third, a parametric bootstrap is employed to estimate the variability of fitted parameters and derived quantities such as thresholds and slopes. I describe how the bootstrap bridging assumption, on which the validity of the procedure depends, can be tested without incurring too high a cost in computation time. Finally I describe how the methods can be extended to test hypotheses concerning the form and shape of several psychometric functions. Software describing the methods is available (http://www.bootstrap-software.com/psignifit/), as well as articles describing the methods in detail (Wichmann&Hill, Perception&Psychophysics, 2001a,b).

Detection performance was measured with sinusoidal and pulse-train gratings. Although the 2.09-c/deg pulse-train, or line gratings, contained at least 8 harmonics all at equal contrast, they were no more detectable than their most detectable component. The addition of broadband pink noise designed to equalize the detectability of the components of the pulse train made the pulse train about a factor of four more detectable than any of its components. However, in contrast-discrimination experiments, with a pedestal or masking grating of the same form and phase as the signal and 15% contrast, the noise did not affect the discrimination performance of the pulse train relative to that obtained with its sinusoidal components. We discuss the implications of these observations for models of early vision in particular the implications for possible sources of internal noise.

The tangential neurons in the fly brain are sensitive to the typical optic flow patterns generated during self-motion (see example in Fig.1). We examine whether a simplified linear model of these neurons can be used to estimate self-motion from the optic flow. We present a theory for the construction of an optimal linear estimator incorporating prior knowledge both about the distance distribution of the environment, and about the noise and self-motion statistics of the sensor. The optimal estimator is tested on a gantry carrying an omnidirectional vision sensor that can be moved along three translational and one rotational degree of freedom. The experiments indicate that the proposed approach yields accurate results for rotation estimates, independently of the current translation and scene layout. Translation estimates, however, turned out to be sensitive to simultaneous rotation and to the particular distance distribution of the scene. The gantry experiments confirm that the receptive field organization of the tangential neurons allows them, as an ensemble, to extract self-motion from the optic flow.

Most visualization panels today are still built around cathode-ray tubes (CRTs), certainly on personal desktops at work and at home. Whilst capable of producing pleasing images for common applications ranging from email writing to TV and DVD presentation, it is as well to note that there are a number of nonlinear transformations between input (voltage) and output (luminance) which distort the digital and/or analogue images send to a CRT. Some of them are input-independent and hence easy to fix, e.g. gamma correction, but others, such as pixel interactions, depend on the content of the input stimulus and are thus harder to compensate for. CRT-induced image distortions cause problems not only in basic vision research but also for applications where image fidelity is critical, most notably in medicine (digitization of X-ray images for diagnostic purposes) and in forms of online commerce, such as the online sale of images, where the image must be reproduced on some output device which will not have the same transfer function as the customer's CRT. I will present measurements from a number of CRTs and illustrate how some of their shortcomings may be problematic for the aforementioned applications.

Locally weighted learning (LWL) is a class of statistical learning techniques that provides useful representations and training algorithms for learning about complex phenomena during autonomous adaptive control of robotic systems. This paper introduces several LWL algorithms that have been tested successfully in real-time learning of complex robot tasks. We discuss two major classes of LWL, memory-based LWL and purely incremental LWL that does not need to remember any data explicitly. In contrast to the traditional beliefs that LWL methods cannot work well in high-dimensional spaces, we provide new algorithms that have been tested in up to 50 dimensional learning problems. The applicability of our LWL algorithms is demonstrated in various robot learning examples, including the learning of devil-sticking, pole-balancing of a humanoid robot arm, and inverse-dynamics learning for a seven degree-of-freedom robot.

Locally weighted learning (LWL) is a class of techniques from nonparametric statistics that provides useful representations and training algorithms for learning about complex phenomena during autonomous adaptive control of robotic systems. This paper introduces several LWL algorithms that have been tested successfully in real-time learning of complex robot tasks. We discuss two major classes of LWL, memory-based LWL and purely incremental LWL that does not need to remember any data explicitly. In contrast to the traditional belief that LWL methods cannot work well in high-dimensional spaces, we provide new algorithms that have been tested on up to 90 dimensional learning problems. The applicability of our LWL algorithms is demonstrated in various robot learning examples, including the learning of devil-sticking, pole-balancing by a humanoid robot arm, and inverse-dynamics learning for a seven and a 30 degree-of-freedom robot. In all these examples, the application of our statistical neural networks techniques allowed either faster or more accurate acquisition of motor control than classical control engineering.

In International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA2002), Washinton, May 11-15 2002, 2002, clmc (inproceedings)

Abstract

Locally weighted learning (LWL) is a class of statistical learning techniques that provides useful representations and training algorithms for learning about complex phenomena during autonomous adaptive control of robotic systems. This paper introduces several LWL algorithms that have been tested successfully in real-time learning of complex robot tasks. We discuss two major classes of LWL, memory-based LWL and purely incremental LWL that does not need to remember any data explicitly. In contrast to the traditional beliefs that LWL methods cannot work well in high-dimensional spaces, we provide new algorithms that have been tested in up to 50 dimensional learning problems. The applicability of our LWL algorithms is demonstrated in various robot learning examples, including the learning of devil-sticking, pole-balancing of a humanoid robot arm, and inverse-dynamics learning for a seven degree-of-freedom robot.

This paper introduces a provably stable adaptive learning controller which employs nonlinear function approximation with automatic growth of the learning network according to the nonlinearities and the working domain of the control system. The unknown function in the dynamical system is approximated by piecewise linear models using a nonparametric regression technique. Local models are allocated as necessary and their parameters are optimized on-line. Inspired by composite adaptive control methods, the pro-posed learning adaptive control algorithm uses both the tracking error and the estimation error to up-date the parameters. We provide Lyapunov analyses that demonstrate the stability properties of the learning controller. Numerical simulations illustrate rapid convergence of the tracking error and the automatic structure adaptation capability of the function approximator. This paper introduces a provably stable adaptive learning controller which employs nonlinear function approximation with automatic growth of the learning network according to the nonlinearities and the working domain of the control system. The unknown function in the dynamical system is approximated by piecewise linear models using a nonparametric regression technique. Local models are allocated as necessary and their parameters are optimized on-line. Inspired by composite adaptive control methods, the pro-posed learning adaptive control algorithm uses both the tracking error and the estimation error to up-date the parameters. We provide Lyapunov analyses that demonstrate the stability properties of the learning controller. Numerical simulations illustrate rapid convergence of the tracking error and the automatic structure adaptation capability of the function approximator

2001

Many settings of unsupervised learning can be viewed as quantization problems - the minimization of the expected quantization error subject to some restrictions. This allows the use of tools such as regularization from the theory of (supervised) risk minimization for unsupervised learning. This setting turns out to be closely related to principal curves, the generative topographic map, and robust coding. We explore this connection in two ways: (1) we propose an algorithm for finding principal manifolds that can be regularized in a variety of ways; and (2) we derive uniform convergence bounds and hence bounds on the learning rates of the algorithm. In particular, we give bounds on the covering numbers which allows us to obtain nearly optimal learning rates for certain types of regularization operators. Experimental results demonstrate the feasibility of the approach.

Using different modifications of a new variational approach, statical
groundstate properties of the one-band Hubbard model such as energy
and staggered magnetisation are calculated. By taking into account
additional fluctuations, the method ist gradually improved so that a
very good description of the energy in one and two dimensions can be
achieved. After a detailed discussion of the application in one dimension, extensions for two dimensions are introduced. By use of a modified
version of the variational ansatz in particular a description of the
quantum phase transition for the magnetisation should be possible.

The psychometric function relates an observer'sperformance to an independent variable, usually some physical quantity of a stimulus in a psychophysical task. This paper, together with its companion paper (Wichmann & Hill, 2001), describes an integrated approach to (1) fitting psychometric functions, (2) assessing the goodness of fit, and (3) providing confidence intervals for the function'sparameters and other estimates derived from them, for the purposes of hypothesis testing. The present paper deals with the first two topics, describing a constrained maximum-likelihood method of parameter estimation and developing several goodness-of-fit tests. Using Monte Carlo simulations, we deal with two specific difficulties that arise when fitting functions to psychophysical data. First, we note that human observers are prone to stimulus-independent errors (or lapses ). We show that failure to account for this can lead to serious biases in estimates of the psychometric function'sparameters and illustrate how the problem may be overcome. Second, we note that psychophysical data sets are usually rather small by the standards required by most of the commonly applied statistical tests. We demonstrate the potential errors of applying traditional X^2 methods to psychophysical data and advocate use of Monte Carlo resampling techniques that do not rely on asymptotic theory. We have made available the software to implement our methods

In The 33rd Symposium on the Interface of Computing Science and Statistics (Interface 2001 - Frontiers in Data Mining and Bioinformatics), pages: 1-15, 33rd Symposium on the Interface of Computing Science and Statistics (Interface - Frontiers in Data Mining and Bioinformatics), 2001 (inproceedings)

Abstract

We describe a novel algorithm for unsupervised segmentation of sequences into alternating Variable Memory Markov sources, first presented in [SBT01]. The algorithm is based on competitive learning between Markov models, when
implemented as Prediction Suffix Trees [RST96] using the MDL principle. By applying a model clustering procedure, based on rate distortion theory combined with deterministic annealing, we obtain a hierarchical segmentation of
sequences between alternating Markov sources. The method is applied successfully to unsupervised segmentation of multilingual texts into languages
where it is able to infer correctly both the number of languages and the language switching points. When applied to protein sequence families (results of the [BSMT01] work), we demonstrate the methods ability to identify biologically meaningful sub-sequences within the proteins, which correspond to
signatures of important functional sub-units called domains. Our approach to proteins classification (through the obtained signatures) is shown to have both conceptual and practical advantages over the currently used methods.

In In the proceeding of the 18th International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML 2001), pages: 513-520, 18th International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML), 2001 (inproceedings)

Abstract

We present a novel information theoretic algorithm for unsupervised segmentation of sequences into alternating Variable Memory Markov sources. The algorithm is based on competitive learning between Markov models, when implemented as Prediction Suffix Trees (Ron et al., 1996) using the MDL principle. By applying a model clustering procedure, based on rate distortion theory combined with deterministic annealing, we obtain a hierarchical segmentation of sequences
between alternating Markov sources. The algorithm seems to be self regulated and automatically avoids over segmentation. The method is applied successfully to unsupervised segmentation of multilingual texts into languages where it is able to infer correctly
both the number of languages and the language switching points. When applied to protein sequence families, we demonstrate the method‘s ability to identify biologically meaningful sub-sequences within the proteins, which correspond to important functional sub-units called domains.

In Humanoids2001, Second IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots, 2001, clmc (inproceedings)

Abstract

Oculomotor control in a humanoid robot faces similar problems as biological oculomotor systems, i.e., the stabilization of gaze in face of unknown perturbations of the body, selective attention, the complexity of stereo vision and dealing with large information processing delays. In this paper, we suggest control circuits to realize three of the most basic oculomotor behaviors - the vestibulo-ocular and optokinetic reflex (VOR-OKR) for gaze stabilization, smooth pursuit for tracking moving objects, and saccades for overt visual attention. Each of these behaviors was derived from inspirations from computational neuroscience, which proves to be a viable strategy to explore novel control mechanisms for humanoid robotics. Our implementations on a humanoid robot demonstrate good performance of the oculomotor behaviors that appears natural and human-like.

This article explores a new approach to learning by imitation and trajectory formation by representing movements as mixtures of nonlinear differential equations with well-defined attractor dynamics. An observed movement is approximated by finding a best fit of the mixture model to its data by a recursive least squares regression technique. In contrast to non-autonomous movement representations like splines, the resultant movement plan remains an autonomous set of nonlinear differential equations that forms a control policy which is robust to strong external perturbations and that can be modified by additional perceptual variables. This movement policy remains the same for a given target, regardless of the initial conditions, and can easily be re-used for new targets. We evaluate the trajectory formation system (TFS) in the context of a humanoid robot simulation that is part of the Virtual Trainer (VT) project, which aims at supervising rehabilitation exercises in stroke-patients. A typical rehabilitation exercise was collected with a Sarcos Sensuit, a device to record joint angular movement from human subjects, and approximated and reproduced with our imitation techniques. Our results demonstrate that multi-joint human movements can be encoded successfully, and that this system allows robust modifications of the movement policy through external variables.

Real-time modeling of complex nonlinear dynamic processes has become increasingly important in various areas of robotics and human augmentation. To address such problems, we have been developing special statistical learning methods that meet the demands of on-line learning, in particular the need for low computational complexity, rapid learning, and scalability to high-dimensional spaces. In this paper, we introduce a novel algorithm that possesses all the necessary properties by combining methods from probabilistic and nonparametric learning. We demonstrate the applicability of our methods for three different applications in humanoid robotics, i.e., the on-line learning of a full-body inverse dynamics model, an inverse kinematics model, and imitation learning. The latter application will also introduce a novel method to shape attractor landscapes of dynamical system by means of statis-tical learning.

We present a model, composed of hierarchy of artificial neural networks, for robot learning by demonstration. The model is implemented in a dynamic simulation of a 41 degrees of freedom humanoid for reproducing 3D human motion of the arm. Results show that the model requires few information about the desired trajectory and learns on-line the relevant features of movement. It can generalize across a small set of data to produce a qualitatively good reproduction of the demonstrated trajectory. Finally, it is shown that reproduction of the trajectory after learning is robust against perturbations.

Sensory-motor integration is one of the key issues in robotics. In this paper, we propose an approach to rhythmic arm movement control that is synchronized with an external signal based on exploiting a simple neural oscillator network. Trajectory generation by the neural oscillator is a biologically inspired method that can allow us to generate a smooth and continuous trajectory. The parameter tuning of the oscillators is used to generate a synchronized movement with wide intervals. We adopted the method for the drumming task as an example task. By using this method, the robot can realize synchronized drumming with wide drumming intervals in real time. The paper also shows the experimental results of drumming by a humanoid robot.

The 2/3 power law, the nonlinear relationship between tangential velocity and radius of curvature of the endeffector trajectory, has been suggested as a fundamental constraint of the central nervous system in the formation of rhythmic endpoint trajectories. However, studies on the 2/3 power law have largely been confined to planar drawing patterns of relatively small size. With the hypothesis that this strategy overlooks nonlinear effects that are constitutive in movement generation, the present experiments tested the validity of the power law in elliptical patterns which were not confined to a planar surface and which were performed by the unconstrained 7-DOF arm with significant variations in pattern size and workspace orientation. Data were recorded from five human subjects where the seven joint angles and the endpoint trajectories were analyzed. Additionally, an anthropomorphic 7-DOF robot arm served as a "control subject" whose endpoint trajectories were generated on the basis of the human joint angle data, modeled as simple harmonic oscillations. Analyses of the endpoint trajectories demonstrate that the power law is systematically violated with increasing pattern size, in both exponent and the goodness of fit. The origins of these violations can be explained analytically based on smooth rhythmic trajectory formation and the kinematic structure of the human arm. We conclude that in unconstrained rhythmic movements, the power law seems to be a by-product of a movement system that favors smooth trajectories, and that it is unlikely to serve as a primary movement generating principle. Our data rather suggests that subjects employed smooth oscillatory pattern generators in joint space to realize the required movement patterns.

Labeled Graph Matching (LGM) has been shown successful in numerous ob-ject vision tasks. This method is the basis for arguably the best face recognition system in the world. We present an algorithm for visual pattern recognition that is an extension of LGM ("LGM+"). We compare the performance of LGM and LGM+ algorithms with a state of the art statistical method based on Mutual Information Maximization (MIM). We present an adaptation of the MIM method for multi-dimensional Gabor wavelet features. The three pattern recognition methods were evaluated on an object detection task, using a set of stimuli on which none of the methods had been tested previously. The results indicate that while the performance of the MIM method operating upon Gabor wavelets is superior to the same method operating on pixels and to LGM, it is surpassed by LGM+. LGM+ offers a significant improvement in performance over LGM without losing LGMâ??s virtues of simplicity, biological plausibility, and a computational cost that is 2-3 orders of magnitude lower than that of the MIM algorithm.Â

Oculomotor control in a humanoid robot faces similar problems as biological oculomotor systems, i.e. the stabilization of gaze in face of unknown perturbations of the body, selective attention, stereo vision, and dealing with large information processing delays. Given the nonlinearities of the geometry of binocular vision as well as the possible nonlinearities of the oculomotor plant, it is desirable to accomplish accurate control of these behaviors through learning approaches. This paper develops a learning control system for the phylogenetically oldest behaviors of oculomotor control, the stabilization reflexes of gaze. In a step-wise procedure, we demonstrate how control theoretic reasonable choices of control components result in an oculomotor control system that resembles the known functional anatomy of the primate oculomotor system. The core of the learning system is derived from the biologically inspired principle of feedback-error learning combined with a state-of-the-art non-parametric statistical learning network. With this circuitry, we demonstrate that our humanoid robot is able to acquire high performance visual stabilization reflexes after about 40 s of learning despite significant nonlinearities and processing delays in the system.

Rhythmically bouncing a ball with a racket was investigated and modeled with a nonlinear map. Model analyses provided a variable defining a dynamically stable solution that obviates computationally expensive corrections. Three experiments evaluated whether dynamic stability is optimized and what perceptual support is necessary for stable behavior. Two hypotheses were tested: (a) Performance is stable if racket acceleration is negative at impact, and (b) variability is lowest at an impact acceleration between -4 and -1 m/s2. In Experiment 1 participants performed the task, eyes open or closed, bouncing a ball confined to a 1-dimensional trajectory. Experiment 2 eliminated constraints on racket and ball trajectory. Experiment 3 excluded visual or haptic information. Movements were performed with negative racket accelerations in the range of highest stability. Performance with eyes closed was more variable, leaving acceleration unaffected. With haptic information, performance was more stable than with visual information alone.

The goal of our research is to investigate the interplay between oculomotor control, visual processing, and limb control in humans and primates by exploring the computational issues of these processes with a biologically inspired artificial oculomotor system on an anthropomorphic robot. In this paper, we investigate the computational mechanisms for visual attention in such a system. Stimuli in the environment excite a dynamical neural network that implements a saliency map, i.e., a winner-take-all competition between stimuli while simultenously smoothing out noise and suppressing irrelevant inputs. In real-time, this system computes new targets for the shift of gaze, executed by the head-eye system of the robot. The redundant degrees-of- freedom of the head-eye system are resolved through a learned inverse kinematics with optimization criterion. We also address important issues how to ensure that the coordinate system of the saliency map remains correct after movement of the robot. The presented attention system is built on principled modules and generally applicable for any sensory modality.

Real-time control of the endeffector of a humanoid robot in external coordinates requires computationally efficient solutions of the inverse kinematics problem. In this context, this paper investigates learning of inverse kinematics for resolved motion rate control (RMRC) employing an optimization criterion to resolve kinematic redundancies. Our learning approach is based on the key observations that learning an inverse of a non uniquely invertible function can be accomplished by augmenting the input representation to the inverse model and by using a spatially localized learning approach. We apply this strategy to inverse kinematics learning and demonstrate how a recently developed statistical learning algorithm, Locally Weighted Projection Regression, allows efficient learning of inverse kinematic mappings in an incremental fashion even when input spaces become rather high dimensional. The resulting performance of the inverse kinematics is comparable to Liegeois ([1]) analytical pseudo inverse with optimization. Our results are illustrated with a 30 degree-of-freedom humanoid robot.

Following a moving target with a narrow-view foveal vision system is one of the essential oculomotor behaviors of humans and humanoids. This oculomotor behavior, called ``Smooth Pursuit'', requires accurate tracking control which cannot be achieved by a simple visual negative feedback controller due to the significant delays in visual information processing. In this paper, we present a biologically inspired and control theoretically sound smooth pursuit controller consisting of two cascaded subsystems. One is an inverse model controller for the oculomotor system, and the other is a learning controller for the dynamics of the visual target. The latter controller learns how to predict the target's motion in head coordinates such that tracking performance can be improved. We investigate our smooth pursuit system in simulations and experiments on a humanoid robot. By using a fast on-line statistical learning network, our humanoid oculomotor system is able to acquire high performance smooth pursuit after about 5 seconds of learning despite significant processing delays in the syste

Our goal is to understand the principles of Perception, Action and Learning in autonomous systems that successfully interact with complex environments and to use this understanding to design future systems